Politics
Trump calls for jailing Democratic leaders as troops prepare for Chicago deployment
- Trump threatens to jail Chicago mayor and Illinois governor.
- National Guard troops gather outside Chicago despite opposition.
- Former FBI chief due in court to face criminal charges.
CHICAGO/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for jailing Chicago’s mayor and the governor of Illinois, both Democrats, as his administration prepared to deploy military troops to the streets of the third-largest US city.
Neither Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson nor Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has been accused of criminal wrongdoing, though both have emerged as prominent opponents of Trump’s immigration crackdown and deployment of National Guard troops in Democratic-leaning cities.
Trump’s call to imprison the two elected officials comes as another high-profile political rival, former FBI Director James Comey, was due to appear in court to face criminal charges that have been widely criticised as flimsy.
Trump has frequently called for jailing his opponents since he first entered politics in 2015, but Comey is the first to face prosecution.
On his social media platform, Trump accused Johnson and Pritzker of failing to protect immigration officers who have been operating in Chicago.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump wrote, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Johnson signed an executive order on Monday creating an “ICE Free Zone” that prohibits federal immigration agents from using city property in their operations.
“This is not the first time Trump has tried to have a Black man unjustly arrested. I’m not going anywhere,” he said on social media.
Pritzker, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, likewise said he would not back down. “Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?”
Trump has vowed to harness the power of the federal government to target his enemies. Aside from Comey, his Justice Department is investigating several other high-profile critics. All have denied wrongdoing, and Comey is expected to plead not guilty to charges of lying to Congress.
Meanwhile, a federal judge ruled that ICE had violated a 2022 agreement that limits the agency’s ability in several Midwestern states to arrest immigrants without a warrant, in an opinion that could limit some of the aggressive tactics adopted by ICE since Trump returned to office.
US District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said the agency had wrongly declared the agreement was cancelled, and extended it until February.
Troops to Chicago
Hundreds of Texas National Guard soldiers have gathered at an Army facility outside Chicago, over the objections of Pritzker, Johnson and other Democratic leaders in the state. Trump has threatened to deploy troops to more US cities, which he said last week could serve as “training grounds” for the armed forces.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday found that most Americans oppose the deployment of troops without an external threat.
Trump has ordered Guard troops to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, following his earlier deployments to Los Angeles and Washington, DC. In each case, he has defied staunch opposition from Democratic mayors and governors, who say Trump’s claims of lawlessness and violence do not reflect reality. He has also said he will send troops to Memphis.
“My goal is very simple. STOP CRIME IN AMERICA!” he wrote on his social media platform.
Violent crime has been falling in many US cities since a Covid-era spike, and National Guard troops have so far been largely used to protect federal facilities, not fight street crime.
Protests over Trump’s immigration policies in Chicago and Portland had been largely peaceful and limited in size, according to local officials, far from the conditions described by Trump administration officials.
At an immigration facility in Broadview, Illinois, outside Chicago, four demonstrators held signs and chanted slogans on Wednesday in front of a wall of heavily armed officers. The administration has said National Guard troops could be sent to guard the facility, but none had arrived by early afternoon.
Pritzker has accused Trump of trying to foment violence to justify further militarisation, and his state has sued to stop the deployment. A federal judge on Monday permitted the deployment to proceed for the time being. Another federal judge has blocked the deployment to Portland.
Trump has threatened to invoke an anti-insurrection law to sidestep any court orders blocking him, which was last invoked during the Los Angeles riots of 1992.
- Countries signing joint statement include India, Pakistan, China.
- Statement criticises attempts to deploy military infrastructure.
- Taliban oppose any foreign military presence in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s regional neighbours appeared to unite against US President Donald Trump’s stated aim of taking over the Bagram military base near Kabul, according to a statement released after they met in Moscow.
The “Moscow Format” meeting on Afghanistan — the seventh such event hosted by Russia but attended for the first time by the Taliban administration’s foreign minister — included India and Pakistan.
The 10 nations also included Russia, China and Iran, as well as Central Asian countries.
In a joint statement released by Russia’s foreign ministry late on Tuesday, the 10 countries did not name the United States or Bagram itself, but seemed to take aim at Trump’s plan for the base, endorsing the Taliban’s position on the issue.
“They (the countries meeting) called unacceptable the attempts by countries to deploy their military infrastructure in Afghanistan and neighboring states, since this does not serve the interests of regional peace and stability,” the joint statement read.
Taliban opposition to foreign forces
At a press conference on Tuesday in Moscow at the conclusion of the event, the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi reiterated his position.
“Afghanistan is a free and independent country, and throughout history, it has never accepted the military presence of foreigners. Our decision and policy will remain the same to keep Afghanistan free and independent,” he said.
The US Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Taliban’s first administration was ousted in 2001 by a US-led invasion of the country, triggering an insurgency by the group.
Bagram, just outside the capital Kabul, became the biggest and best-known US base in Afghanistan before the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021 as the Taliban retook control.
Last month, Trump threatened “bad things” would happen to Afghanistan if it did not give back Bagram, and cited what he called its strategic location near China.
Current and former US officials have cast doubt on Trump’s goal, saying that re-occupying Bagram might end up looking like a re-invasion, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as deployment of advanced air defences.
- Starmer begins trip to India to promote trade ties.
- Visas blocked previous efforts to seal trade deal: UK PM.
- Starmer trying to take more restrictive stance on immigration.
Britain will not pursue a visa deal with India, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, as he aims to deepen economic ties with the country following this year’s trade agreement.
Starmer begins a two-day trip to India on Wednesday, bringing a trade mission of businesses to promote the trade deal, which was agreed in May, signed in July, and is due to come into effect next year.
Starmer said that visas had blocked previous efforts to seal a trade deal, and that, having reached an agreement which had no visa implications, he didn’t wish to revisit the issue when he meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks on Thursday.
“That isn’t part of the plans,” he told reporters en route to India when asked about visas, adding the visit was “to take advantage of the free trade agreement that we’ve already struck”.
“Businesses are taking advantage of that. But the issue is not about visas.”
Starmer is trying to take a more restrictive stance on immigration amid high public concern about the issue, as his Labour Party trails the populist Reform UK party in polls.
He said visas would not be on the table in order to attract tech sector professionals from India, after US President Donald Trump hiked fees on H-1B visas, though he said more broadly he wanted to have “top talent” in Britain.
Asked if he would stop issuing visas to arrivals from countries that won’t take back foreign criminals or people wanted to deport, Starmer said it was a “non-issue” with India as there is a returns agreement, but it was something he would look at more broadly.
“We are looking at whether there should be a link between visas and returns agreements,” he said.
Scientists warn that the seas surrounding New Zealand are warming much faster than the global average, highlighting the urgent impact of climate change on the island nation.
A government report, Our Marine Environment, revealed that New Zealand’s ocean waters are heating 34 percent faster than worldwide averages.
Rising temperatures, increasing acidity, and more frequent marine heatwaves are already threatening thousands of coastal homes as sea levels climb.
“Climate change is driving significant changes in our oceans,” the report said. “Ocean temperatures are rising, marine heatwaves are becoming more intense and longer-lasting, and sea-level rise is accelerating at many locations.”
Researchers linked this rapid warming to disruptions in ocean currents between New Zealand and Antarctica, along with changes in atmospheric circulation.
Shane Geange, marine advisor at the Department of Conservation, said, “Global warming is intensifying existing problems in our oceans.
We are witnessing faster sea-level rise, more severe marine heatwaves, and oceans becoming more acidic and losing oxygen.”
Sea-surface temperatures at four sites around New Zealand rose, on average, between 0.16C and 0.26C per decade between 1982 and 2023.
Many native species were struggling to adapt to life in warmer and more acidic oceans, the study found, and risked being overrun by invasive pests.
Warmer-than-normal sea temperatures have previously been linked to deaths of New Zealand’s native yellow-eyed penguins.
“Because of these findings, how we manage New Zealand’s marine environment needs to change,” said Geange.
“We now have enough evidence to take action, and delaying risks further harms to our marine ecosystems.”
Steadily rising sea levels were already being felt in many of New Zealand’s low-lying coastal hamlets, the report found.
More than 200,000 homes worth US$100 billion (NZ$180 billion) were found in areas at risk of coastal inundation and inland flooding.
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